Bridges Competition
The Steans Music Institute is thrilled to return to in-person music making, kicking off with the Bridges Composition Competition concert and the Jazz Grandstand concert, both streamed on Ravinia’s YouTube channel.
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During an action-packed jazz schedule in Bennett Gordon Hall this year, beginning with the Second Annual Bridges concert, Michael Orenstein’s winning composition, Staircase premiered to an enthusiastic crowd. The concert featured an ensemble of RSMI alumni performing Orenstein’s piece, and the three winning composers from the inaugural competition last year returned for encore performances of their winning works.
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It was in the spirit of the intense and aspirational goals of RSMI’s ambitious programs for jazz and classical musicians—as well as the bold musical vision of Leonard Bernstein, whom Ravinia has just gotten underway celebrating with an expansive multiyear tribute—that Bridges, an international jazz and classical fusion composition competition, was born. It offered an imaginative challenge for artists ages 17–30 (the same age range as the 60–70 performers invited to RSMI each year) to compose original works specifically for a string quartet and a jazz trio. “The Bridges competition was conceived to help give young professionals a place on the map—if not the world stage—which is precisely what RSMI has been granting singers and instrumentalists for the past three decades,” Kauffman said. The directors of the RSMI Program for Jazz had long dreamed of such a competition, having written many works combining jazz and classical music and players themselves.